Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold revealed that the UFC is planning on being strict with Paulo Costa in lieu of his weight cutting drama prior to Marvin Vettori bout.
This is somewhat of a compromise considering that White was adamant that Costa will no longer be a middleweight after basically having a light heavyweight bout with Vettori.
Paulo Costa surprised everyone in his last bout in October of last year. ‘Borrachinha’ was scheduled to fight Marvin Vettori in the middleweight division. However, Costa showed up around 30 pounds over the limit during the official weigh in session. He weighed 204.5 pounds while the middleweight division weight cap is 185 pounds.
The fight continued as a light heavyweight bout, but the 31-year-old had to give 20% of his purse to Vettori. Costa lost via unanimous decision after fighting for 5 rounds.
UFC will make sure to stop Costa from being unprofessional again. Costa’s next opponent, Luke Rockhold, revealed that UFC will be closely monitoring Costa during an interview with the Schmo.
“There’s no little insight, there’s nothing to that. The UFC will be monitoring his weight weekly and we’ll be dancing at a proper weight. If he can’t make the weight, there will be a transition I’m sure at some point.” Rockhold said.
The two were set to clash at UFC 277 event coming in July but rumor has it Costa is trying to push it back for August.
Luke Rockhold will return after being inactive for around 3 years. The Californian won the UFC middleweight championship in 2015 but failed to defend it in 2016 against Michael Bisping. Since then, he went 2-1 with the loss being a light heavyweight debut against Jan Blachowicz back in 2019.
Paulo Costa lost his last two fights. The Brazilian failed to win the middleweight title against Israel Adesanya in 2019.